To Call it Home
by Tsukiori
Summary: Doctor Tenma begins to get re-acclimated to life not on the run.


Heather Liu stared at the man seated across from her. She made sure that she was doing her best imitation of her maternal grandmother, Dragon Lady Wu: fingers steepled under her chin, glasses perched almost on the tip of the nose and glaring over the rims at the, admittedly blurry, target of her intimidation powers. The Japanese man seemed unaffected though. He sat back in his camp chair, crossed his arms, and stared serenely back at her. Curses, he probably had his own formidable grandparent or maiden aunt and had built up an immunity. Admitting defeat, she pushed her glasses fully onto her nose. Saint Tenma's face snapped into focus, pale, dark circles under the eyes, and radiating an inner calm.

She fidgeted. He watched her in silence. Waiting. Not the slightest bit impatient. She wondered if itwould be petty of her to hate him. "Doctor Tenma."

"Yes, Doctor Liu?"

"I suppose you wonder why I called you to my office…er tent?"

"No."

Oh, she felt a headache coming. "No, you aren't curious or…"

"No, I know why you called me here."

"Ah."

"And I refuse."

"You can't refuse! Why would you want to refuse?"

"I need to be here." He gestured outside of the tent, at the derelict, bomb blasted wasteland that could be glimpses every now and then when the wind caught the tent flaps. "I'm needed here."

"I'm not firing you! Or even transferring you, you're…"

"Then let me be."

"You're going to burn out."

A small smile. "I could never do that."

God, it was enough to make one believe in the living Buddhas. She wanted to throw a shoe at his head. "You say that now. I've seen it happen. You've been on tour of duty in a combat zone for longer than the recommended period. Almost twice the recommended period now!"

"I'm staying."

"It's just a vacation! For a few months! Don't you have people you want to see?"

His face clouded. She remembered the swirl of newspaper stories and rumors that had heralded his joining Doctors Without Borders. Maybe he didn't have anyone waiting for him. Or at least, no one he wanted to see, to have the old memories stirred into life again.

She let herself sigh. That wasn't her problem. The man needed a break. Even if it was in a hotel room somewhere watching pay preview and counting every second until he came back. "I'm your superior. I'm in charge of you. Since you joined my division you've proven yourself invaluable. You know that."

"So then-"

"Let me finish!" She stopped herself from adding 'young man'. He was probably older than her! _I'm turning into Po Po Wu_. _This is what this man makes me sink to._ "Because you are invaluable, we want you here with this division for as long as you want to be here. If that's years and years, that's great. But," She held a finger up. "If you don't take a break every now and then, you'll be worthless to us much sooner than you think. And you won't be good for anything when you reach that kind of burnt out. Not for Borders, not for hospitals, not even small town private practice. I've seen it happen to other would be saints."

He frowned at that, dark eyes flashing. Ooo so he could get angry. It made her feel a bit better. "I am giving you a week to get a plane ticket and get the hell out of here. You may come back at the end of four weeks."

"I was going to make it six months!" she snapped, as his mouth opened in protest. "You will take a month vacation and you will like it!"

If it were any other of her subordinates she would have sworn that he was pouting. "If you don't agree to this I will cite mental instability and have you thrown out of Borders forever."

That fire in his eyes again. "Try me." She snarled, standing up and crossing her arms over her chest, staring him down with one eyebrow raised.

He looked away first, strands of his hair falling into his face.

"Thought so. I mean, good. Doctor Tenma, enjoy your break. Send me a postcard." She offered him her hand. She wondered if she had pushed too hard, made an enemy. But he looked down at her hand, smiled a small smile that was almost self-mocking and then took it. His hand was warm, calloused and the grip was firm. None of that going dead fish because she was a woman.

"I'll see you in two months and a week , Doctor Liu."

She followed him to the tent entrance and watched him get into a jeep. What an infuriating man. He sat in the jeep a minute, combing back his hair with his fingers, trying to tuck it behind his ears in such a way that the wind wouldn't catch it and throw it into his eyes as he drove. Too short for a pony tail, too long to stay put. He should really grow it long… Shaking the thought away, she went back to her small camp table. Paper work , paper work. Plus age had taught her try to have as little to do with the haunted types as possible. Ghosts always followed them wherever they went, no matter how far or fast they ran. There was no such thing as freedom for them and she was too grownup to think she could banish anyone else's demons but her own.

Tenma had decided not to call Dr. Reichwein. He spent the whole flight debating it to the last moment. He'd find a nice hotel somewhere, maybe in a smaller hamlet of Germany. Somewhere that wasn't connected with…before in any way. He probably shouldn't even be going back to Germany, but he was at a loss as to where else he could go. Japan? Stir up a whole new mess of memories and regrets and have to plaster on a smile while his parents and brothers did the same? With silent recriminations, hostilities and jealousies aging like fine wine littering the spaces between them for the whole visit? Some of the minefields he had had to navigate while on Borders projects would be safer. Navigating them in the dark, blindfolded would be better and probably have a greater chance of success. No, Germany was now his home, for better or worse, and it had gotten pretty 'for worse' there for a long while. He had nowhere else to go and honestly not anywhere else he wanted to be.

After helping a flight attendant navigate a wheelchair-bound elderly woman off the plane and onto the terminal passenger -getting a brilliant smile from the young man and a bag of homemade cookies from the old woman- he followed the terminal signs to baggage claim. The only luggage he had was slung over his shoulder-and it wouldn't remind him of Grimmer, it wouldn't - but International airplane terminal experience had taught him that the exit with the taxis was always the one near the baggage terminal. And they hardly ever marked taxi pick-up stations clearly or accurately outside of Japan.

To say he was surprised by the welcoming committee was an understatement. His bag slid off his shoulder and hit the floor with a thud. "How….Why?"

"Welcome home!" Dr. Reichwein, Nina Fortner, and Dieter shouted. He noticed that Nina and Dieter had made a banner and had gotten overexcited with the application of the glitter. Also the spacing was a little off, the A almost off the sheet of paper.

"But I didn't- Hello there!" Dieter had let go of the banner and had his waist in a fierce bear hug. "I missed you too." He admitted, correctly guessing what the mumbling against his stomach had been. He ruffled the boy's hair fondly.

"You're right, you didn't tell us you were coming!" Nina attempted a stern expression, hands on her hips, one half of the banner still clutched in one fist. "We're quite mad at you, aren't we Dieter?"

Dieter pulled away enough from Tenma to rest his chin on his lower rib. "I have a game on Saturday. Can you make it? Say you'll make it!"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." And he meant every word of it.

"Traitor." Nina snarled, the wide grin giving her away. Dieter stuck his tongue out at her.

Dr. Reichwein's booming laugh disrupted the kind-hearted bickering. "You were going to sneak in and out of Germany like a thief in the night. Probably due to some fool notion that you'd be imposing on us."

"That's…"

"You think about other people too much. A good thing a Doctor Liu called me long distance from Bosnia. She told me to make sure you actually rested for your two months off. Good woman, there."

"Yesss. How'd she…"

"It seems that I'm your emergency contact. She took the liberty of looking it up."

"Isn't that illegal? If it's not, you know, an emergency?" He looked at Nina, who chose that moment to focus intently on reading the menu signboard of the nearby coffee shop.

Reichwein shrugged. "Remarkable woman, that one. Lovely speaking voice, though her German was atrocious."

"Uh-huh…"

"Thank god I keep up on my English. How old is she abouts?"

"Well, what matters is that you're here. Whatever rules had to be bent, I'm sure it was done in the name of love." Nina elbowed Reichwein in the ribs when he sputtered.

"Did you know she studied at Cambridge for a few years? She must be very smart." Reichwein looked almost dreamy.

It was like a parent confessing to being in crush with a film star. Tenma gaped at him. "How long did you two talk?!"

Nina clapped her hands, "Come on lady-killers. Dieter let go. Let me carry your bag, Doctor Tenma."

"What..Wait, it's…" Nina slung it effortless over her shoulder and looked at him, one eyebrow raised. "heavy. " he trailed off.

"She works out every day. She had a Judo tournament a while back too! She kicked so much-"

"Dieter-"

"butt." Dieter smirked at her. "What'd you think I was gonna say?"

"Well, Ms. Fortner is right. We should probably get going if we have any hope of making it back before dinner time. My housekeeper is making us a wonderful treat tonight."

"You say that every night." Dieter said, letting go of Tenma's waist and taking hold of his hand, wrapping his fingers around his possessively.

"And every night it's true." Reichwein lead the way to the car park.

"She doesn't have designs on me." Tenma muttered to Nina out of the side of his mouth.

"Who doesn't?"

"Doctor Liu."

"No, I mean who doesn't?" She laughed, throwing her head back. "Working closely together in adverse conditions. Sleeping in the same barracks. Your flashing eyes, her stern, yet caring attitude…"

"Nina."

"She reads romance novels to 'unwind'" Dieter let go of Tenma's hand long enough to make quotations marks. "And girls are weird." He confided.

"I heard that. Finals get stressful. What's wrong in losing yourself in a fantasy world for a while?"

"And they have cooties. My friend Hans told me so."

"Boys are the ones with the cooties."

"Uh-uh."

"Uh-HUH!"

"How old are you again, Ms. Fortner?"

"Twenty-two in April!" She sing-songed at Reichwine's back.

"Mentally my age." Dieter added.

"Hopefully I stay that way. Growing up seems boring." She raised her voice slightly on the last word, making sure Reichwein could hear it.

Dieter giggled and Nina joined in.

"You two." Tenma sighed, smiling, eyes tearing up ever so slightly.

"Are you okay, Doctor Tenma? Long trip catching up to you?"

"It was a very long trip. Entirely too long." What he wanted to say was: _I thought I'd never hear the two of you laugh again. Sometimes I thought you'd never be able to laugh again, let alone that I'd be alive to hear it._ He wrapped an arm around Nina's shoulders and pulled her close to him and gripped Dieter's small small hand more tightly.


End file.
